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A good simple desk top at a price that's hard to bargain with

Since my boyfriend and I moved in together 4 years ago I've been using my laptop (no desk required) but he has a conventional desktop and up until a couple of months ago it had been sat in the cornor of the living room across two low level square coffee tables - it looked messy and wasn't the ideal position to be working in, so we finally got our act together and decided to go desk buying!

We first went to Homebase as it was nice and local - they did have a lovely desk, but it was far too big and was the only option in stock, so we made the decision to drive the 50 odd miles to Southamptons ikea on a rainy Sunday.

The gap the desk needed to fit into was not to biggest so I made sure I drew a diagram and made note of all the possible applicable dimesions so we could make an informed choice.

I thought Ikea would have tonnes of choice, and to be honest I was a bit disappointed when we got there to find that a) there weren't that many in the 'home office' section and b) they again all seemed massive - it's almost like they think everyone lives in big spacious homes, nope I live in a 3 bed terraced and I want to fit a desk in the corner of the living room between the fire and the window.

Anyway we roamed around the rest of the displays in Ikea on the lookout for something that might do the job and finally saw something in one of the smaller bedroom displays that looked like it would do the job - I made a note of the name/number and went back to look for it in the office section.

Turns out the first label was wrong, but I did find it in some racking on the far side of the home office area - turns out it was the 'Vika Amon' range. Essentially this is a do it yourself desk in more than just construction - you chose all the components yourself and Vika Amon specifically refers to the table top itself.

This is available in a number of different size and colour options and the smallest size was the only one that would fit in the space we had. None of the wood colours matched the wood we alreeady had in the room so we decided to go for a stark contrast and got a black coloured one. From memory the size we purchased was 100x60cm and cost just £9 which seemed very reasonable.

Essentially it's just a big flat slab of painted wood (all sides are painted so you can place it anywhere and it still looks finished, rather than the bares backs you get on some items) and the underside has a number of predrilled holes suitable for affixing various leg options you can purchase with it. The set up we went for was 2 vika moliden legs (the more expensive but stylish looking options) and a draw set of the same height on the other side, we also purchased two brackets and a shelf to put on the top so the screen could be raised up from everything else.

Personally I find the desk to be very sturdy - ours holds the tower, screen, a printer, keyboard etc with no issues and I'd be quite happy to stand on it as I believe it would take a large amount of weight without issue.

One thing to remember if you're going to store yourself to buy this is how you're going to get it home. We have 3 cars - a capri, a mini pickup and a toyota MR2. Either the capri or the pickup would have been most practical but as my capri is off the road that wasn't an option, and we didn't want to use the pickup in the rain so we went in the most impractical car - a small, 2 seater japanese sports car! Along with all the other desk related items we only just managed to squeeze everything in and even this smallest of desk top options was two wide to fit in the boot - we ended up wedging it in the cab of the car where I only just managed to slide in underneath it, having to endure the whole drive home with my head bent to the right as I couldn't sit up straight. So my handy tip of the day is - don't just measure the space you want the furniture to fit into, measure the space in your car too!

Overall I'm very happy with my purchase though - it wasn't what I had in mind when we set out to buy a desk, but it does the job, the desk top was cheap and it's of good quality. It's also quite stylish and modern looking and would fit in well with many homes today so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

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Ikea Vika Amon tables and table legs are a very cheap and convenient way to get your hands on a new table or desk. The components are sold seperately so you can choose the right size, style and colour for your intended room. If you look on the Ikea website, you'll see that these tables come in various sizes from small desks to large tables, in colours of white, black and wooden browns, and with a variety of different coloured plastic legs available too.

For the wife's craft room, she wanted the 120cm x 120cm corner table top from this range in black-brown, which was very reasonably priced at £26.55. This would require 5 legs (sold seperately) at £2.04 each, making the total price a very reasonable £36.75. Unfortunately, this desk was just slightly too large to transport in our car! And while this particular item is available to buy online, unlike a lot of Ikea's lower priced stock, it wouldn't have been worth it with the delivery charges on top as we are slightly too far away from the store.

So in place of this, the Mrs opted for a standard rectangular table top priced at an amazingly cheap £13.28. This table top is white, and 120cm x 60cm. With this we purchased four black legs making the total price £21.44. For a table of this size - I think that is cheap. There are other add-ons you can consider, such as drawer sets and cabinets, to make a whole workstation from this range. However for the wife's needs, she was just after a workspace for her craft items. If you're on a budget, the larger table tops, or two of the smaller ones side-by-side, would make a great cheap dining room table or colouring and crafts table for older kids.

Getting the table and legs home wasn't too difficult, after we'd got the above selection chosen and made sure it would fit in our car. The table top is melamine style finished and made from a light, cheap fibreboard material, so it wasn't overly heavy to carry (9.3kg according to the website). The table came wrapped in a layer of shrink wrap to protect it a little during transit, and it had pre-drilled holes underneath it for fitting the legs too easily.

Once home, it took me just ten minutes to get the table assembled. There were screws included with the table legs I'd purchased seperately, and these legs attach to circular plates which screw onto the pre-drilled holes underneath the table at five points around each circle. Once assembled, I found the table was plenty sturdy enough for the purpose we required it for. It holds a 20" LCD TV, a variety of craft materials, and still leaves space for the Mrs to work away quite happily. I wouldn't be confident to put any more weight on it than it currently holds though, as this really is quite a lightweight table. I would only put a PC and related peripherals on one of these if I had the support of a draw unit or two underneath here as opposed to just the four lightweight, plasticky £2 legs we have used.

We're very happy with our purchase and would definitely recommend this range to others who are looking for a cheap but versatile work station. The options we chose only hold so much weight, but that's down to our choices rather than the range itself. If we wanted the table to hold more weight than it presently can, we could simply select a drawer unit to go underneath one end of our table top. The great thing about this range is that we are not stuck with our present option forever more - we can always make changes later on if desired by purchasing another unit and unscrewing the legs. Simple.